A Lower Milford Township man has been charged with multiple child pornography crimes for allegedly making sex tapes of Korean exchange students who stayed in his home.

The Lehigh County District Attorney's office issued the following press release at 1 p.m. Friday:

"A Lower Milford Township man who hosted exchange students from Korea was charged on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2011, with sexual abuse of children and other offenses for videotaping three students, ages 16 and 17, while they were in the bathroom and bedrooms of his house.

Michael Scott Scheeler, 42, was arraigned by District Judge David Harding. Bail was set at $50,000 straight, and a preliminary hearing has been scheduled for Jan. 20."

There is a page on LinkedIn, a business and social networking website, that contains a page for a man with the same name. There,  Michael Scheeler's page  identifies him as a teacher at Faith Christian Academy in Sellersville, south of Coopersburg. Other media reports indicate Scheeler has never been a teacher at the school, but has worked there as a volunteer.

The DA's press release further states:

"Scheeler is charged with three counts of sexual abuse of children, a felony of the second degree; three counts of sexual abuse of children as a third-degree felony; three counts of corruption of minors, a first-degree misdemeanor, for furnishing alcohol to the students; three counts of invasion of privacy, a third-degree misdemeanor; six counts of invasion of privacy, a second-degree misdemeanor; and three counts of furnishing alcohol to minors, a third-degree misdemeanor.

The charges were filed by Detective Kevin W. Smith, a Lehigh County detective and child abuse investigator. Lower Milford Township Police Officers Daniel Dieter and Arthur Williams assisted in the investigation.

An affidavit of probable cause alleges:

Scheeler was the host parent for three students of the Faith Christian Academy in Sellersville, Bucks County. He provided the students with room and board. The students are identified in the criminal complaint and affidavit of probable cause by initials only because of their ages.

Detective Smith interviewed the alleged victims at the Child Advocacy Center of Lehigh County.

One of the students saw a video of another student on Scheeler’s laptop and later found folders that had his name and the names of two other students on the same laptop.

One of the students reported the discovery to a school administrator.

Detective Smith obtained a search warrant and conducted a search of Scheeler’s house with the assistance of Officers Dieter and Williams. Fifty-seven DVD media storage units were found in a locked pouch. Also found was wiring used to connect video and audio equipment in the ceiling of the house and four miniature cameras that recorded from different angles. The DVDs were examined and found to contain videos of the three victims. The videos allegedly were taken from March 10, 2010 to Nov. 10, 2010."